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IndiGo feud still unresolved, co-founder says

Reports of a truce between IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Int'l) co-founders Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia are “false and misleading”, Gangwal stressed in a letter to the board of the airline's parent InterGlobe Aviation Ltd dated August 5 and released to exchanges on August 6, Reuters has reported.

The much-publicised spat between the two stems from disagreements on corporate governance, and these issues remain unresolved, he said.

The Economic Times newspaper reported on July 24 that Meleveetil Damodaran, chairman of IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation, had brokered a ceasefire in the row between the co-founders.

Gangwal, who is also a 37% shareholder in InterGlobe, sought the intervention of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulator in July into alleged corporate governance lapses at the company, which InterGlobe denied.

He complained that IGE Group, a vehicle for Bhatia that owns a 38% stake in InterGlobe, has significant controlling rights over IndiGo, allowing it to carry out alleged “questionable” transactions.

Gangwal said in his letter this week that he refused to support a proposal by the airline to expand its board of directors to ten members, arguing it would benefit IGE by helping it to “rework and dilute” company policy on transactions.

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To the evident relief of the state government of Jammu and Kashmir as well as to airlines and travellers, the Indian Air Force (IFC, Delhi Int'l) has withdrawn its earlier order of late August to close Jammu Airport for two weeks from October 1.

Official sources told the Excelsior, the state's largest circulation newspaper, that the decision to resurface the runway had been reviewed on the intervention of India's Ministry of Defence following criticism by the state government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) due to the prevailing situation in the region and an upcoming season of festivals.

Commercial flights will not be suspended and the runway work will now be carried out at night, the sources told the newspaper. An earlier request by the state and the AAI to the air force to do the resurfacing at night had been rejected, prompting them to appeal to the ministry.

Pravat Ranjan Beuria, the airport's director, confirmed the change in plan and said that the airlines operating to Jammu, which had earlier stopped bookings...

InterGlobe Aviation, parent company of IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Int'l), has approved the alteration of its articles of association to increase the size of the board of directors to ten, among other decisions taken at its annual general meeting (AGM) this week. It also reappointed co-founder Rahul Bhatia as non-executive director, the Indian financial daily Mint reported.

The move to expand the board came amid a widely publicised spat between Bhatia and fellow co-founder Rakesh Gangwal, with the latter repeatedly accusing Bhatia of corporate governance lapses in recent months. Gangwal had said in a letter to the board on August 5 that he refused to support this proposal, arguing that it would benefit IGE Group - a vehicle for Bhatia that owns a 38% stake in IndiGo - by helping it to “rework and dilute” company policy on allegedly “questionable” transactions. Gangwal and his associates hold nearly 37% of the company.

Rakesh Gangwal, who lives in the US and was not present at the AGM in New Delhi, has protested that InterGlobe already possesses significant controlling...

As the communications blackout continues in Kashmir amid tensions surrounding the status of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has announced that Jammu Airport will be shut for at least 15 days from October 1 to resurface the runway.

Sources told the Indian newspaper The Tribune that the airport's closure was not related to a previously announced expansion, as the Indian Air Force (IAF) would be doing the resurfacing. The AAI had said in July 2018 that it would expand asphalt runway 18/36 from its current 2,000 metres to 2,440 metres, with a deadline of March 2020. On August 16, 2019, Sushma Chauhan, deputy commissioner for Jammu, requested that the agencies executing the expansion provide structure-free greenfield sites to the AAI to speed up the project.

In relation to the closure, the sources said that the Jammu branch of the AAI was exploring options to move some flights operating to Jammu to Pathankot or the air force base at Udhampur as alternative arrangements to deal with any VIP...